WHO WAS THE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 59, 9 August 1940, Page 16

WHO WAS THE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR?

A Survey Of Last Season

Although New Zealand’s past athletic season opened with the war, and was affected by the war, the full effect will not be noticed until summer comes again. Many of the athletes mentioned in this survey will be absent from the track next season; many will be away from New Zealand. Here then, is an evaluation of the pre-war vintage:

OME years may pass before New Zealand has a season of athletics as promising as the one just past. When war came New Zealand athletes were reaching a peak period which might well have produced something really interesting. Although all the promise was not fulfilled, the season left behind it many performances which will be worth looking back upon when the sports ground Once again replaces the military camp as a _ training centre. This article attempts to assess the record of the season. Most promising of all our athletes were the milers. Pat Boot was fining down his times. Billy Pullar was still running strongly. Dickison was just beginning to prove himself a distance runner. ‘Matthews, primarily a three-miler, could still be relied upon to keep the lap times down in a mile. Theo. Allen was working himself into place with the first two or three and might have done better still. Wade, of Auckland, made Boot hurry in the Centennial mile. Masterton Did Its Best And there were many others. Out of this fine crop something of note must have grown. Masterton Club did its best to produce it by staging the attempt on the world four-mile relay record. Although it failed, this race might well have provided the men with the necessary work-out before the championships, but in the national championships the mile field was not adequately represented and in the Centennial Mile it struggled through mud. Injuries, sickness, military service, reduced the representation of old-hands to Pullar. Dickison, who might have speeded the race, co-operated with Pullar in hanging back for so wng that the race in the end developed into

a four-forty final lap which Pullar covered in 58.6 seconds. In the first two laps they had run as if in a marathon. Promise Not Fulfilled Out of this crop of mile runners might have come the athlete of the season. As it happened, the promise was not fulfilled. There were several fine in-

dividual efforts, but nothing especially above the average of the last few seasons, and nothing of the sort that might have been produced had those men been able to work in concert on a good track. It would be pleasant to think of Boot as the athlete of the year. Undoubtedly he could have been. His time in the Centennial Mile deserves the highest admiration. But he was just getting into the peak of his training when he entered camp. This must have upset his whole training programme. He still ran well, but he had no opportunities to run better. He retainéd his undoubted primacy in the half-mile, but it was in the mile that he would have found the opposition to make the sort (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) of hard race that produces records. He will have to share the honour. Who is the other to be? Dickison’s effortless stride won him the three miles championship. The time was not remarkable, He won well ahead of the rest. Matthews in this race would have been forced to hurry. Pullar had run his race the day before, in the mile. With the distance men more or less cancelled out in this manner it is hard to find among the rest any specially outstanding athlete. Weichart in the pole vault was undoubtedly in a class by himself. Compared with all other competitors in all other events his performances were best. But he is not a New Zealander and for the purposes of this survey we have to try to make some choice between the others. The 1940 champions are listed on the table on this page, which includes figures that may usefully be kept for future reference, Not Very Imposing That table is not, on paper, a very imposing list of times. But on the Basin Reserve all the performances were fair, many of them good, and a few very good. Among the few very good times were Sharpley’s in the 120 and 220 hurdles. The weather on that day on the Basin Reserve was worth more than a second over that distance. In better conditions there is little doubt that Sharpley could have beaten both New Zealand records, which he holds himself. The track was not fast, and the wind took the edge off every competitor. For these two good performances, Sharpley’s name must go down beside Boot’s as Athlete No. 2 of the season. Not only were his times good, his style was first class. He was a well-trained and wellstyled athlete running in good form, Through the whole meeting ran the same story-the Basin Reserve was too slow. In a period of extreme drought this ground might come up to the standards any other country would require of its national championship track. But it rains in Wellington as often as it blows, and there is no flat country for a sports ground that would not require miles of artificial drains to perfect it. It might, in fact, be said of nearly every sports

ground in New Zealand that it has at one time or another adversely affected our best athletes. None has been put down scientifically. Results everywhere depend on the season’s climatic conditions. The notable exception is at Masterton, and even there the excellent result does not seem to have been obtained by any special forethought. (To be concluded next week.)

Event 100 yards 120 hurdle « 220 flat 220 hurdle 440 flat 440 hurdle «- 880 flat Mile Mile walk 3-Mile walk 3-Mile flat Marathon Discus ~ Broad jump High jump Pole vault « Shot put Javelin Hammer Hop step ORS mo S OFmsoMazet Winner Sutherland . F. Sharpley i F. Sharpley . J. Tyrie Ramsay P. Boot . A. Pullar McCarthy McCarthy Dickison L. Austin L. Todd W. Wilkins : Weichart Bg 3° . Spillane A. Calvert Time or distance N.Z. record 10 3-5 15 4-5 22 3-5 > ee ~ oo j mn 53 4-5 30 3-5 ew ana 9 4-5 21 3-5 24 4-5 48 4-5 1 53 4-5 4 13 3-5 6 26 2-5 21 36 3-5 14.7 World record 9 2-5 13 7-10 20 3-5 22 3-5 46 2-5 52 3-5 1 49 3-5 4 64-5 6 25 4-5 13 50 3-5 Times not comparable 124ft. Olin. 21 7 6 12 4lft. 934in. 187 4% 151 5% 144ft. 6 Yin. 174ft. 2Yin, 23 10% 26 8% 6 5 6 9% 12. 3 14 11 (American jumpers have now exceeded 15ft.) 51ft. 634in 57 lin. 218 814 253 414 169 9% 189 614 50 1 52 5 7-8 44 114

TABLE OF 1940 CHAMPIONS